This scoping review aimed to identify how surgical prehabilitation is defined across randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and propose a common definition. The review included RCTs of unimodal or multimodal prehabilitation interventions (nutrition, exercise, and psychological support) lasting at least 7 days in adults undergoing elective surgery. The final search identified 76 RCTs, with more than half (55%) explicitly defining surgical prehabilitation. The proposed common definition is: "Prehabilitation is a process from diagnosis to surgery, consisting of one or more preoperative interventions of exercise, nutrition, psychological strategies, and respiratory training, that aims to enhance functional capacity and physiological reserve to allow patients to withstand surgical stressors, improve postoperative outcomes, and facilitate recovery." This definition serves as the first step towards standardization, which is crucial for guiding future high-quality research and advancing the field of prehabilitation. The authors suggest further evaluation by international stakeholders to ensure the definition's comprehensiveness and global acceptance.This scoping review aimed to identify how surgical prehabilitation is defined across randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and propose a common definition. The review included RCTs of unimodal or multimodal prehabilitation interventions (nutrition, exercise, and psychological support) lasting at least 7 days in adults undergoing elective surgery. The final search identified 76 RCTs, with more than half (55%) explicitly defining surgical prehabilitation. The proposed common definition is: "Prehabilitation is a process from diagnosis to surgery, consisting of one or more preoperative interventions of exercise, nutrition, psychological strategies, and respiratory training, that aims to enhance functional capacity and physiological reserve to allow patients to withstand surgical stressors, improve postoperative outcomes, and facilitate recovery." This definition serves as the first step towards standardization, which is crucial for guiding future high-quality research and advancing the field of prehabilitation. The authors suggest further evaluation by international stakeholders to ensure the definition's comprehensiveness and global acceptance.